The blacklisting era of the 1940s and '50s destroyed lives and shattered careers.

Hollywood figures and others called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC, found themselves facing a chilling question: "Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?"

To refuse to answer could mean imprisonment. To answer affirmatively, or to even have been associated with those who were members, meant work suddenly would disappear. Many of the artists blacklisted in Hollywood lost their livelihoods or were forced to toil anonymously, under pseudonyms.

This ignominious chapter in American history has been widely chronicled in recent films such as "Trumbo" and more historic ones, such as Martin Ritt's "The Front" (starring Woody Allen and the once-blacklisted Zero Mostel) and George Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck."

But a different kind of examination of this period — through music — will unfold Sunday afternoon, when several of Chicago's best singers and songwriters stage "Blacklisted" at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie. As its title implies, the concert will spotlight music penned or famously performed by artists persecuted during Sen. Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare. To hear music of Lena Horne and Paul Robeson, Leonard Bernstein and Marc Blitzstein, Judy Holliday and the aforementioned Mostel is to behold what a wide swath of American talent McCarthy and uncounted others sought to humiliate and crush.

Given the visceral power of music to reach an audience emotionally, as well as intellectually, the concert seems uniquely positioned to convey the terrors of the era.

Which is precisely the idea.

"I was in a conversation with someone who's been generous with the cabaret community, and we were talking about what makes us grant-worthy," says Chicago singer-songwriter Carla Gordon, producer-director of "Blacklisted."

"He said: If you put on another show with a feather boa, I'll be OK. But you have a responsibility to step up to the plate. You have a responsibility to make the world better. Do something about violence. Do something about bullying."

Not long after, Gordon happened to be reading Kirk Douglas' book "I Am Spartacus! Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist," which chronicled the actor-producer's heroic decision to give blacklisted Dalton Trumbo screenwriting credit for the film "Spartacus" under Trumbo's own name — not a pseudonym.

That's when Gordon knew what her next project would be.

"When that gentleman said, 'You should do something about bullying,' I thought: I can't write a rap song,'" recalls Gordon.

"But I'm a cabaret singer-songwriter. How I get my message across into the world is through that."

So Gordon began researching the McCarthy era and was stunned at how many leading musical figures were burned by the blacklist. The challenge, in fact, became whittling down all the musicians who fell victim to McCarthy-era hysteria.

Over time, the cast of singers Gordon convened began to pick the songs and stories that moved them the most. Among them, formidable singer-pianist Beckie Menzie will salute singer-pianist Hazel Scott by performing "Honeysuckle Rose" and Blitzstein by singing his "I Wish It So"; operatic vocalist Robert Sims will take on the anthem most widely identified with Robeson, "Ol' Man River," and Bernstein's "Maria" from "West Side Story"; and singer Joan Curto will salute Horne with "Stormy Weather" and Holliday with "Just in Time."

"To read about what happened to (Horne) during this tumultuous time, it's really amazing," says Curto. "She had so much prejudice against her from so many different places, and then to be blacklisted just because of the affiliation with a friend.

"Most of it revolved around her friendship with Paul Robeson. He asked her to become part of several organizations in Hollywood — some of those people were associated with the Communist Party. It was (guilt by) association. She wasn't in the Communist Party. She had a very deep friendship with Paul Robeson. So it started there.

"And the same with Judy Holliday. She became part of organizations in Hollywood, which was innocent to her at the time. ... She had many years where she had a lot of difficulty finding work as a result of her being blacklisted."

It may be difficult for us today to imagine such a wholly un-American purge of artistic talent based on political viewpoint and personal association. But for those who were called before HUAC, the experience was chilling.

"Being called to the committee marked you as a person," actor Morris Carnovsky told me in 1989, reflecting on his own harrowing encounter with Congress.

"All of us who were called were victims of the times," he added. "The thing we resented about it was the interruption to our artistic activities. I went to Washington, and it was a painful experience."

Carnovsky refused to name names. His film career was destroyed.

That's the kind of story that the "Blacklisted" concert will address, the show also acknowledging a famous Chicagoan who brushed up against the blacklist, Studs Terkel.

During that era, Terkel "was producing the Mahalia Jackson radio show," says Gordon, referring to the greatest gospel singer of all time. So Jackson was told, "You gotta fire this guy.

"And she says: If he goes, I go. So guess what? He stayed.

"So we're going to do, with our audience, I hope, 'He's Got the Whole World In His Hands.'"

The point of this project, of course, is not just to savor great music and understand a bleak period in American life but also to convey a message about the future.

To that end, Gordon and songwriting partner Wayne Richards have penned and will perform the sole new piece on the program, "Prayer for America."

"It's about how the immigrants — my grandparents — came to America with the understanding they could speak, they could vote, they could pray as they saw fit," says Gordon. "This was America, so there were no consequences to (any of) that.

"So you gotta ask: What the heck happened to America? Under McCarthy, what happened to the First Amendment?

"We cannot let that happen again."

That this message will be articulated at the Holocaust Museum, which memorializes the ultimate expression of persecution — genocide — can only serve to intensify the experience.

"The venue is so special," says singer Curto. "It adds such meaning to what we're doing."

Yes indeed.

"Blacklisted" will be performed at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, 9603 Woods Dr., Skokie; $15; 847-967-4800 or www.ilholocaustmuseum.org. The program will be repeated at 2 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Skokie Theatre, 7924 N. Lincoln Ave., Skokie; $20; 847-677-7761 or www.skokietheatre.org.

"Portraits in Jazz":Howard Reich's e-book collects interviews with Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and others, as well as profiles of early masters such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday. Get "Portraits in Jazz" at www.chicagotribune.com/ebooks.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 27, 2016, in the Arts + Entertainment section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Blacklisting era in song and story" —
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